Economy can growth at double-digit in two years: Mukherjee

NEW DELHI - The Indian economic growth will soon grow at 9 percent ammually and even move to double-digits expansion in the next two years if the government is able to address reforms and address weaknesse, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Sunday.

“The challenge now is to quickly revert to the high growth path of 9 percent plus,” the finance minister said, adding means would be found to cross over to double-digit growth barrier in the coming year or two.

Mukherjee told the 26th India Economic Summit, co-organised by the Davos, Switzerland-based World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) that the recovery was yet to “attain the pre-2008 momentum” given the industrial output numbers.

“The manufacturing sector has been showing buoyancy reminiscent of the pre-slowdown years, though some concerns on its growth momentum have emerged in the last month or two,” Mukherjee said.

Industrial output growth slowed to 6.9 percent in August and declined further to 4.4 percent in September from 15.2 percent in July.

However, Mukherjee said India’s macro-economic outlook was strong and the country would register robust growth in the coming years.

“Savings and investment rates have reached levels that even ten years ago would have been dismissed as a pipedream for India. On this important dimension, India is now completely a part of the world’s fast-growing economies,” he said.

The finance minister said the government was taking pro-active measures to fix the problems and weaknesses in the economy. “We are looking to address the weaknesses in our systems, structures and institutions at different levels of governance.”

Mukherjee said economic recovery in India had been driven by increased investment and high private consumptions.

He pointed out that spending on infrastructure has increased to 9 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first three years of the 11th Plan period (2007-12) from 4-5 percent in the previous plan period.

“The aspirations for the next plan period are even more ambitious,” he added.